1710. Plátanus orientális, Oriental plane. 1712. O'rnus europæ`a, flowering ash. 1725. Pinus Stròbus, Weymouth pine. 1727. Làrix europæ`a, larch. 1730. Quércus Ilex, evergreen oak. 1732. Abies balsamífera, balm of Gilead fir. Holyrood House. New Hailes. Arbigland. 1733. Taxodium dístichum, deciduous cypress. Loudon. 1734. Quércus Egilops L., Velonia oak. New Hailes. 1736. Ulmus campestris, English elm. Dalmahoy. 1738. Acer platanoides L., Norway maple. Mountstewart. 1739. Salix phlorágna [q. triándra], Tine- Newhails. bark willow. Hopetoun. 1740. Cèdrus Libàni, cedar of Lebanon. Hopetoun. Carmichael. 1759. Abies canadénsis, white Newfound- New Posso. land spruce, or hemlock spruce. 1763. Fráxinus americana and sp., white and blue American ash. Pinus longifolia, long-leaved American pine. Bétula papyrífera, the paper birch. 1765. Bétula nigra L., black American birch. 1766. Pópulus dilatàta, Lombardy poplar. 1770. Populus balsamífera, balsam poplar. Elliock. From this period (1770) the intercourse between Scotland and England became so frequent, that the dates of the introduction of foreign trees and shrubs into the two countries may be considered as merged into one. It would be interesting to know some particulars respecting the tastes and pursuits of the proprietors of the places mentioned in Dr. Walker's list; but at this distant period, we have been able to glean very little suitable to our purpose respecting them. Taymouth, in the central highlands of Perthshire, is a very old seat of the Campbells. Pennant says the castle was first built by Sir John Campbell, sixth knight of Lochow, who died in 1583. The place, he says, has been much modernised since the days of the founder, and has lost its castellated form, as well as its old name of Balloch Castle. The place has subsequently undergone a great variety of alterations, and at present is remarkable for the extent of its woods and plantations, and for a fine avenue of lime trees. The present proprietor is John Campbell, Marquess of Breadalbane. Inverary Castle was inhabited by a Colin Campbell before 1480; and is now the property of George William Campbell, Duke of Argyll. It is a magnificent place, from its great extent, with the sea in front, and backed by wooded hills and lofty mountains. The house is an immense quadrangular building, and with the plantations and pleasure-grounds, are said to have cost, within the last half century, upwards of 300,000l. The Portugal laurel was introduced here in 1695, and is said to have been brought from Portugal by Duke Archibald; one tree spreads over a circle of 165 ft. in circumference, and is nearly 40 ft. high. In Smith's Agricultural Report of Argyllshire, the oldest and largest trees at Inverary are supposed to have been planted by the Marquess of Argyll (frequently mentioned by Evelyn as a great planter), between the years 1650 and 1660. Those of the next largest size and age were raised from seed by Archibald Duke of Argyll in 1746 or 1747. These latter consist chiefly of larches, New England pines, and spruce and silver firs. (Report, &c., p. 156.) The soil and climate at Inverary are said to be remarkably favourable for the growth of trees. Prestonfield is a well known place in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, which, in 1783, belonged to Sir Alexander Dick, a great horticulturist as well as agriculturist, and distinguished by having been the first to produce good medicinal rhubarb in Scotland. (See Wight's Husbandry of Scotland, vol. iii. pt. ii. p. 443.) Kinross was built and planted, about 1685, by Sir William Bruce, the celebrated architect, for his own residence, and was the first good house of regular architecture in Scotland. It was approached by a fine avenue of trees. Drumlanrig, in Dumfriesshire, was built by the Duke of Queensberry in a commanding situation: it took ten years in building, and was finished in 1689. The duke expended an immense sum in forming terraced gardens, which, according to Gilpin (Observations, &c., in Scotland, 1776), served only to deform a very delightful piece of scenery. The duke, he adds, seems to have been aware of his folly, for he is said to have "bundled up all the accounts together, and inscribed them with a grievous curse on any of his posterity who should ever look into them." The property now belongs to the Duke of Buccleugh and Queensberry, who is planting and building there very extensively. (See an account of Drumlanrig, when visited by us in 1831, in the Gardener's Magazine, vol. ix. p. 1.) Hamilton Palace, in Lanarkshire, the ancient seat of the Dukes of Hamilton, was built at different periods; the most ancient part in 1501. The grounds were laid out in the year 1690. The gardens and lawns near the house were planted with foreign trees, especially lime trees, some fine specimens of which still remain. One of the earliest nursery gardens in Scotland appears to have been established at the little village of. Hamilton, close by the palace, being the only garden for the sale of plants mentioned by Reid in his Scots Gardener, published in 1683. Among the oaks of Hamilton Park, so famous down to the end of the seventeenth century, there were trees, Nasmyth informs us, which measured 27 feet round the trunk, with wide expansive branches. (Agriculture of Clydesdale, p. 144.) Panmure is the name of an ancient family in Angusshire, whose chief seat is the spacious and hospitable mansion of Brechin Castle, which, from the remotest period of its history, has always been possessed by the Maules, formerly Earls of Panmure. Panmure, another seat of this family, is near Dundee, and was built about 1665. It is a venerable fabric, and is kept by the proprietor, with all its furniture and pictures, in the same state in which it descended from his ancestors. In Dr. Walker's time, Panmure was famous for its laburnums, which were planted towards the end of the seventeenth century, and had attained a great size in 1780. Sang says that a considerable quantity of the laburnums at Panmure and Brechin were cut down in 1809, and sold by public sale at fully 10s. 6d. a foot, chiefly to cabinetmakers. New Posso, in Peeblesshire, was formerly called Dalwick, Dawick, or Daick. It belonged, in very ancient times, to the chiefs of a very considerable family of the name of Veitch; but, in 1715, it was in the possession of Sir James Nasmyth of Posso, an eminent lawyer, who rebuilt the house and garden, and by some ornamental planting added greatly to the beauty of the place. Pennicuick mentions that, in an old orchard near the house, the herons built their nests upon some pear trees, which were large and old trees in 1715. Armstrong, in 1775, says that New Posso, formerly called Dalwick, " from being a lonely mansion in the bosom of a gloomy mountain, is now the extreme The vast improvements made by its present possessor have proved not only an ornament to Tweeddale, but a worthy example for emulation in the gentlemen of the county. The botanical and culinary gardens are justly esteemed the most copious in it; and the pleasurable attention with which they are cultivated, is sufficiently expressed on the front of the greenhouse, alluding to its flowers, Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."" (Armstrong.) reverse. 66 "The name of New Posso," Dr. Pennicuick tells us, was given to the place by Sir James Nasmyth, grandson of the first possessor of that name, who was sheriff-depute in 1627. The late Sir James Nasmyth of Posso has extended and finished the place, and numerous plantations, with as much taste and elegance as the Dutch mode of gardening by line and rule will admit of. He likewise kept it in high order, and by the superiority of his own external appearance, politeness, knowledge of the world by travel, and accomplishments, rendered both himself and his seat the models for imitation to the country where he lived. To have every thing about themselves and their houses as like to James Nasmyth and New Posso as possible was then the height of their ambition, about 1775, among the gentry of Tweeddale. A very well written letter, by this Sir J. Nasmyth, on the subject of botany, in answer to one from His Lordship at Blair Drummond, is preserved in Lord Woodhouselee's Life of Lord Kaims, and in compliment to him the birch called the Bétula Nasmythii was so named. Many of the fine trees about New Posso have been lately cut down and sold, besides all those at Posso." The above is extracted from Dr. Pennycuick's Works in Prose and Verse, which were originally published in 1715, but of which an edition was published in 1814, with notes up to that year. New Posso is at present distinguished for its pine and larch plantations; and, according to Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, the first larches introduced into Scotland were planted at Dawick in the year 1725 (Lauder's Gilpin's Forest Scenery, vol. i. p. 148.); though this is doubtful, as will hereafter appear. Sir Thomas also mentions a locust tree at Dawick, which, at 3 ft. from the ground, measures 5 ft. 10 in. in girt. The present proprietor of Dawick, or New Posso, is Sir John Nasmyth, grandson of the Sir James celebrated by Dr. Pennicuick. Holyrood House, where the Oriental plane was first planted in Scotland, is, as every one knows, the royal palace of Edinburgh. The Abbey of Holyrood, according to Maitland (Hist. of Edin.), was founded by King David I., in 1128, and consisted of a church and cloister. Maitland speaking of this church and cloister, says: "After having stood 400 years in the fields, by themselves, King James V., about the year 1528, erected a house to reside in at his coming to Edinburgh, near the south-western corner of the church, with a circular turret at each angle, which is the present tower at the northwestern corner of the palace; to which was added, by King Charles II., in the year 1674, all the other parts of the present magnificent royal mansion. The said King James, to accommodate himself with a park, inclosed a large quantity of ground in this neighbourhood with a stonern wall, about three miles in circumference, which probably is no where to be paralleled; for, instead of trees and thickets for cover, which other parks abound with, I could not, after the strictest search, discover one tree therein in lieu whereof, it is supplied with huge rocks and vast declivities, which furnish the Edinburghers with the best of stones to pave their streets withal; as do the other parts of the said park yield good pasturage, and meadow grounds, with considerable spots of arable land." (Maitland's Hist. of Edin., fol. 1753, p. 152.) Arnot, in his History of Edinburgh, published in 1779, speaking of this park, says: "In the memory of people not long since dead [Arnot wrote about 1779], the level strip at the foot of the hill [Arthur's seat], which, from the Duke of York having delighted to walk in it, bears the name of 'The Duke's Walk,' was covered with tall oaks; but now there is hardly a single tree in its whole boundaries. Indeed, it is extremely doubtful if, except at the bottom, there ever were any trees on these hills, the height of the ground and barrenness of the soil being very unfavourable to their growth." (Arnot's Hist. of Edin., 4to, Edin., 1779, p. 309.) It is clear, therefore, that the platanus, mentioned by Dr. Walker, was not planted in the park at Holyrood House: but we learn from the same authorities (Maitland and Arnot) that there were two walled gardens attached to the palace; and that "the royal garden at the northern end of the outer court" was "converted into a physic garden," and that it was under the same superintendence, and applied to the same purposes, as the physic garden at the North Loch. There can be no doubt, but it was in the physic garden adjoining the palace, that the platanus mentioned by Dr. Walker was planted; and the planter was probably Sutherland. Bargally is to us by far the most interesting seat in Scotland, with respect to the introduction of foreign trees and shrubs, and though we have taken the greatest pains to ascertain from what circumstances its proprietor became so much attached to botanical pursuits, as to introduce in a remote part of Scotland, in the 17th century, trees then scarcely known even in its metropolis, and have been in a great measure successful; yet there is still some deficiency in the information we have obtained. Bargally is a small property situated in a glen, the sides of which are covered with natural wood, between Gatehouse in Kirkcudbrightshire, and Newton-Stewart. The proprietor's name was Andrew Heron; and he appears, by a family tomb in the grounds, to have died there in 1729. We have applied to about a dozen different persons in Kirkcudbrightshire, whom we deemed most likely to give us information respecting Bargally and its planter, and the following are extracts from the communications we have received, joined to what we have been able to glean from books. One of our correspondents informs us, "that Andrew Heron was a son of Heron of Heron of Kirauchtree (Caeruchtred), chief of that name. This Andrew built a cottage, in which he resided, at the upper extremity of the beautiful valley in which the present house of Bargally stands, and planted all the lower part of the valley. The splendid Quércus Flex and the noble beeches, which you saw in 1831, are but miserable relics of the magnificent forest which once rose between Bargally House and the river Palnur H |